José Luis de Oriol y Urigüen,éLuisOriolUrigü 2nd Marquis of Casa Oriol (1877–1972), was a Spanish businessman, architect and politician. As an architect he designed few historicist residential buildings, some of them very prestigious today. As a businessman he was the moving spirit behind Hidroeléctrica Española and Talgo. As a politician he served as Conservative and Traditionalist MP, growing into a local Álava tycoon.
Family and youth
José Luis Valentin Oriol was born to a distinguished Catalan landowner family, his first ancestors recorded in the 17th century. The brother of his paternal grandfather, Buenaventura de Oriol y Salvador, was a prominent Carlist; in return for his service to the cause, Carlos VII made him marquis of Oriol in 1870. José's father, José María de Oriol y Gordo (1842-1899), pursued a military engineer career and as a colonel sided with the legitimists during the Third Carlist War. Briefly on exile in France, while the war was still ongoing he married Maria de los Dolores Tiburcia Urigüen Urigüen. A native of Portugalete and daughter of a prominent member of the emerging Biscay bourgeoisie, Lucien Urigüen, she was heir to a commercial fortune and descendant to a Liberal, anti-Carlist family.
The couple settled in Bilbao, where both José Luis and his younger sister María were born. José studied architecture in Madrid, graduating as the first in class in 1903, to continue with his studies later on in Paris. In 1904 he married an alavesa, Catalina de Urquijo Vitórica. Her father, Lucas Urquijo Urrutia, made his name as a highly successful Basque entrepreneur, co-founder of Hidroeléctrica Española, co-owner of Banco Urquijo and a number of other companies; also Catalina's mother owned an immense fortune. From 1905 to 1924 the couple, residing in Madrid, enjoyed birth of 8 children, José María, Lucas, Fernando, Antonio María, Sacramento, Teresa, Catalina and Ignacio. Four of their five sons enlisted later as the Carlist military volunteers, Requeté (the youngest one as a 13-year-old could not enlist). Except Fernando, who died in combat, all of them became well known figures in the Francoist Spain, either as public servants and politicians or businessmen and entrepreneurs. Many of their numerous offspring are currently present in various areas of public life in Spain, be it politics, business or arts.
Architect
José Luis started his architect career mostly by work on family projects, usually large residential estates. The best known designs of this category are grand villas known as Palacio Oriol in Santurtzi (1902), Palacio Arriluce in Neguri (1911) and Palacio San Joséren in Getxo (1916), all overlooking the Bay of Biscay and having been very esteemed locations until today, currently hosting luxurious hotels or prestigious social events. Their style is usually described as various breeds of historicism, with most common references to quasi-medievalism, Romanticism and British Victorian style.
Probably Oriol's most impressive design is a monumental complex of the Medicine Faculty of the University of Valencia (1908), its façade described as eclectic in style and spanning 300 yards. With the construction cost estimated at 4,4m pesetas and esthetical controversies raised, it was nevertheless applauded as a masterpiece of its time, combining technical innovation and high functionality. Especially the large hospital, an elaborate system of pavilions and rooms accommodating 250 beds, with subterranean passages and open galleries, attracted general praise. Enormous scope of the project prolonged the construction work, plagued by a number of misfortunes, like strikes, fires and political instability; the complex was eventually officially opened in 1949.
The best known Oriol's work, however, is casa de Montalbán, known today as Palacio del Retiro (1914). It was designed in the centre of Madrid as a family residence and office; currently it hosts a luxury hotel. The building, its style described as eclectic or neo-baroque, gained recognition and indeed notoriety for its lavish finishing, including stained-glass windows, fountains and frescos; some of its features bordered extravagance, like elevators which carried horses to and from the rooftop exercise ring.